GORDON COOPER – “An Astronaut’s Experience”

Leroy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper Jr. was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned space program of the United States.  Cooper developed Parkinson’s disease and died at age 77 from heart failure at his home in Ventura, California, on October 4, 2004.